Numerous methods are in use, such as for sports uniforms, for adhering a mark (badge) printed with a jersey number, a desired design etc. onto the uniform fabric. Hitherto, in order to form such marks, often mark-fabric materials are used that have been provided with a hot melt adhesive layer on a mark-fabric such as a woven fabric, knitted fabric, or non-woven fabric, printed with the desired color, design, motif, or the like using silk screen printing or the like. Note that “mark-fabric material” below denotes a material with at least an adhesive layer applied to a mark-fabric prior to applying the motif, design etc. onto the mark-fabric. References to a “marked-fabric” means a fabric in which the motif, design etc. have been applied to a mark-fabric material. Namely, it is possible to form a mark (badge) by cutting a marked-fabric, which has a motif etc. applied onto a mark-fabric material, into a desired shape, and adhering this to a uniform etc.
Development of transfer papers printed with color, motif, design etc. using a sublimating dye has recently progressed as technology for printing motifs etc. onto mark-fabric materials. Currently, even in the mark industry, alongside conventional silk screen printing methods and the like, technology is becoming widespread in which a motif, a design etc. is transferred onto a mark-fabric material using transfer paper printed with a sublimating dye.
Explanation follows, using FIG. 3, regarding an example of technology in which a mark-fabric material is produced using transfer paper. A cloth suited to transfer of a sublimating dye by sublimation may be employed as a mark-fabric 6 configuring a mark-fabric material 11. Typical examples of such cloths include plain white woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, non-woven fabrics, etc. made from polyester fiber or the like. In order to produce the mark-fabric material 11 with the configuration illustrated in FIG. 3, first a composite fabric 8 is produced using the mark-fabric 6 and a non-woven fabric 7 coated with a temporary adhesive 7′. Specifically, a composite fabric 8 backed by the non-woven fabric 7 can be produced by superimposing the non-woven fabric 7 on the mark-fabric 6, with the temporary adhesive 7′ facing toward the mark-fabric 6, and performing thermal pressing using a heat press. A printed face of the transfer paper is then pressed onto the front face of the plain white mark-fabric 6 of the composite fabric 8, thermal pressing is performed using a heat press or the like, the sublimation dye of the color, motif, design etc. printed onto the transfer paper using sublimating dye is caused to sublimate, and the color, motif, or design formed from the sublimated dye are transferred onto the face of the plain white mark-fabric 6. The thermal pressing conditions during transfer of the color, motif, or design (sublimation transfer) are usually set such that the heating temperature is from approximately 180° C. to approximately 210° C., the pressure is from approximately 1 g per square centimeter to 2000 g per square centimeter, and the thermal pressing time is from approximately 30 seconds to approximately 90 seconds.
Next, according to ordinary methods, an adhesive layer 9 is formed on the non-woven fabric 7 face of the composite fabric 8 for which the above operations have been completed using a hot melt thermoplastic synthetic resin exhibiting a function of transfer-adhering a mark onto a transfer target such as a uniform, and a release sheet 10 is stuck onto the surface of the adhesive layer 9 to yield a material that is a mark-fabric material 11 configured as illustrated in FIG. 3. The melting point of the adhesive layer 9 is usually adjusted so as to be approximately 150° C., the thermal pressing time is usually set at approximately 30 seconds, and the pressure is usually adjusted to approximately 200 g per square centimeter. During production of the mark from the mark-fabric material 11 produced by the above means, a desired shape is cut from the mark-fabric material 11 to yield a mark 12 like that illustrated in FIG. 4.
For the above mark-fabric material, the mark-fabric material 11 cannot be produced by first taking a cloth selected from the group consisting of plain white woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, non-woven fabrics, etc. made from polyester fiber as the mark-fabric 6, then, with the non-woven fabric 7 coated with the temporary adhesive 7′ backing the mark-fabric 6 to form the composite fabric 8, forming the adhesive layer 9 on the back face of the composite fabric 8 to thereby produce the mark-fabric material, and then subsequently producing the mark-fabric material 11 transferred with the color, motif, or design by the sublimating dye using the transfer paper onto the cloth that forms the mark-fabric 6 of the composite fabric 8 configuring the mark-fabric material. This is because not only are the temperature to sublimate the sublimating dye printed onto the transfer paper onto the mark-fabric 6 for forming a marked-fabric material to transfer the color, motif, or design onto a mark-fabric of the mark-fabric 6, and the melting point of the adhesive layer 9 formed on the mark-fabric material are different from each other, but the melting of the adhesive layer 9 would proceed first during the transfer operation due to differences in press pressure and pressing time, and the melted resin of the adhesive layer 9 would pass through the non-woven fabric 7 configuring the composite fabric 8, seep out onto the front face of the mark-fabric 6, and cause sublimation transfer defects due to a membrane forming on the surface of the mark-fabric 6 by the melted resin.
Moreover, the following defects arise when: a plain white woven fabric, knitted fabric, non-woven fabric or the like made from polyester fiber currently employed in the mark (badge) industry is employed as the mark-fabric 6; the non-woven fabric 7 coated with the temporary adhesive 7′ is employed backing the mark-fabric 6 to form the composite fabric 8; then after using the transfer paper to transfer the color, motif, or design onto the mark-fabric 6 of the composite fabric 8, the adhesive layer 9 is formed on the non-woven fabric 7 of the composite fabric 8, and a mark 12, illustrated in FIG. 4, is produced by punching out from the mark-fabric material 11 configured as illustrated in FIG. 3; and the mark is adhered to a uniform or the like by thermal pressing by an ordinary method. Namely, although there is strong adhesion between the uniform and the non-woven fabric 7 of the composite fabric 8 configuring the mark, there is poor fastness to washing of the mark 12 adhered to a uniform or the like, and what is referred to as a peeling defect arises during washing, due to the non-woven fabric 7 being temporarily adhered to the mark-fabric 6 by the temporary adhesive 7′. Moreover, a mark is produced with the defect of having poor rub resistance. Moreover, after transferring the color, motif, or design onto the mark-fabric 6 of the composite fabric 8 using the transfer paper, if an attempt is made to form the adhesive layer 9 after peeling off the non-woven fabric 7, a defect arises of the color, motif, or design transferred using the transfer paper distorting due to the operation to peel off the mark-fabric 6.
Moreover, as a means to produce the composite fabric 8 so as to alleviate the defects described above, consideration might be given to: producing the composite fabric 8 thickly coated with the temporary adhesive 7′ in an attempt to strongly adhere the non-woven fabric 7, disposed behind the mark-fabric 6, to the mark-fabric 6; producing the mark-fabric material 11 by forming the adhesive layer 9 on the non-woven fabric 7 of the composite fabric 8; punching out the mark 12 from the mark-fabric material 11; and adhering the mark 12 to a uniform or the like using thermal pressing in accordance with ordinary methods. However, since in such a mark-fabric material the synthetic resin configuring the temporary adhesive 7′ results in a thick layer, the synthetic resin would melt and seep through both to the front face of the mark-fabric 6 and the back face of the non-woven fabric 7, and a membrane would be formed due to the melted synthetic resin on the surface of the mark-fabric 6. As a result, defects would arise that the mark-fabric material produced using the composite fabric 8 with the thick temporary adhesive 7′, and marks produced from this mark-fabric material would not be a saleable product.
As a mark-fabric material mitigating the above issues, a mark-fabric material is described in which: a plain white cloth produced using fibers made from constituent components having an affinity to a sublimating dye is employed as a mark-fabric to configure a mark-fabric material; an intermediate layer made from a synthetic resin set with a softening temperature at a higher temperature than the sublimation temperature of the sublimating dye is formed on the back face of the mark-fabric that is the cloth described above by a synthetic resin having affinity to constituent components of a cloth component of the mark-fabric that is the cloth described above; and a transfer adhesive layer (adhesive layer) made from a hot melt thermoplastic synthetic resin is formed on the surface of the intermediate layer, and release paper is stuck onto the surface of the transfer adhesive layer (see Patent Document 1).